GORDON WEBSTER: Blues Till Dawn

Gordon Webster

Blues Till Dawn

© 2007 Gordon Webster (634479571343) (format: CD-R)

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Bluesy jazz; It's well after midnight and you want to slow things down. Create the perfect mood with this collection of soulful piano playing, singing and trombone playing.

notes

It's well after midnight and you want to slow things down. Create the perfect mood with this collection of soulful piano playing, singing and trombone playing. Featuring special guests: amazing singer Brianna Thomas, and trombonist extraordinaire Roland Barber. Whether you're dancing or just listening, this album is guaranteed to put you in a perfect late night groove.

Pianist Gordon Webster has been living in New York City for three years. He enjoys an active career on the New York jazz scene, where he has performed with a long list of jazz artists including Grant Green Jr., Wycliffe Gordon, Donny McCaslin, Ron McClure, Chris Potter, Joel Frahm, and Jim Black among others. His playing has been showcased in various New York City venues including the Blue Note, Sweet Rhythm, The Iridium, The Cutting Room, Cleopatra's Needle, Makor, Mannahatta Lounge, Kavehaz, St. Nick's Pub, Night and Day, and Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola (Jazz at Lincoln Center).

Webster graduated from the Manhattan School of Music Masters Degree in jazz studies program in 2006, and has studied privately with Kenny Barron, Garry Dial, Sonny Bravo, Ari Heonig and Samir Chatterjee. He has performed in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, France, Australia, and throughout the United States and Canada at international jazz festivals, jazz clubs, and dancing events including lindy exchanges, workshops and camps.

Originally from Ottawa, Webster began studying music at the age of four. In 1993 he moved to Toronto where he earned a Bachelor of Music from the University of Toronto in 1999. His first trio recording, as a leader, "Three We" was released in 2000 with sidemen Duncan Hopkins and Kevin Dempsey. Other recording credits include Canadian jazz releases with Chris Robinson, Kim Addison, Rita di Ghent; groove/fusion projects KITE, Jukejoint and Gruvoria; a recent duo album with Rochester trumpeter Mike Kaupa, and brother Mike Webster's fall 2005 release Leading Lines featuring bassist John Benitez (Eddie Palmeri, Chick Corea, John Scofield) and trumpeter Mike Rodriguez (Ray Barreto). Gordon has taught jazz improvisation and piano at Jazzworks summer camp near Ottawa, Canada for four years, and has appeared in educational concerts for children with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in collaboration with conductor Boris Brott.

In addition to his ongoing creative pursuits as a jazz musician, Gordon developed a passion for lindy hop and blues dancing over the past six years, which has become a significant influence in his life since 2001. Blues Till Dawn is a collection of slow, bluesy jazz tracks influenced by the sultry atmosphere of a late night dancing event in the lindy hop/blues scene.

Here's what dancers are saying about Gordon Webster:

"...an extremely rare combination of eloquence, passion, and accessibility - like a shot of something pure that goes straight to the head and heart."

--Elizabeth Miller, dance instructor, event promoter
Boston, MA

"Gordon plays every note like it's the last note he's going to play in his entire life."

--Steven Mitchell, worldwide lindy hop instructor


"Gord's very well musically educated, and it's evident. However, it's HOW he plays that makes the biggest impact - his soul wells up in his hands and either flows or explodes out through his fingers and into the keys. He's incredibly moving. Incredibly."

--Michelle Long, dancer
Rochester, NY

reviews

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  • blues till dawn
    author: ruth de silva

    i am captivated and transfixed whenever i put this cd on, the world stops and i am transported by the music. stunning arrangements and fantastic musicianship. highly recommend this gem of a cd

  • Awesome!
    author: James E. Jer-Don

    This is the best version of "Georgia on My Mind" I have heard since ray Charles did it. great disc. You won't regret this purchase.

  • WOW
    author: Nathan Stewart

    I found this album on my first trip to CD BABY. It is a wonderful piece of work showcasing a very entertaining pianist and featuring Brianna Thomes. I suspect that Ms Thomas will be a really big star in music... The inclusion of the trombone came as a surprise... a very pleasant surprise. Mr. Webster's piano is a thing of beauty. I loved the balance in each piece. Nothing overdone...everthing played allowing the music to rule. I will be looking for new albums by Mr Webster and will patiently wait 'til Ms Thomas hits the big time. I hope it won't take long for either event to occur.

  • author: vandereycken Johan

    De Cd verveelt nooit,mooie afwisseling -musikaal/vocaal.

  • Just keeps getting better with each listen
    author: Billy Bakelite

    What is so wondrous about this CD is the orchestration and musical phrasing; how, at times, the slightest breath of a trombone can lay so simply yet eloquently between the vocals and the piano. Each listen provides a bit deeper appreciation for this incredible integration of musicians who are each stellar on their own, but even better being so completely in synch. A real gem.

  • author: Tamara Turner, CD Baby

    Few vocalists can transfix their listeners in such a way to render them speechless. In the same vein as Ella and Billie, Brianna Thomas ties the tongue with so much genius in her musicality, that to analyze her approach, to try and capture her presence through words would be futile and bordering on irrelevant. But what may not be as obvious to the listener right off the bat is that of equal elegance and moving artistry: the piano playing of Gordon Webster. Here is a man whose phrases rise up to meet his singer in what is no less than divine conversation: two musical voices, as fluid as smoke rising in the corner of a NY jazz club. Thomas’s brilliance as a deeply feeling vocalist is markedly highlighted by the unusual, emotionally-rich voice that Gordon draws out of the keyboard. He plays the keys as if he were playing a stringed instrument; he’s able to pull out long, supple lines that grow and soar in connected waves. He’s one of the few players who can lift the piano out of the percussion section (with its hammers) and resurrects it in the name of the strings it holds inside, strings that could be bowed if the right player could hear it in his mind’s eye. That player is Webster. This is three-dimensional jazz at its fullest: jazz that shrugs off its own skin simply because its emotional impact is beyond cognitive understanding. When Gordon plays solo, backed by his combo, it’s no different: the music is far beyond being about the notes and rather, simply begins with the story, the emotion, the pure experience.

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